Chinese fishing boats among disputed islands

A big fleet of Chinese fishing vessels arrived at the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on Sunday, amid tensions with its neighbours over rival claims to the area.

The fleet includes a 3,000 tonne supply ship, and a patrol vessel to provide protection, according to a report by China's Xinhua news agency.

The fleet's arrival came after a week of tensions involving territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Earlier on Sunday, China extricated a naval frigate that got stranded four days earlier on a shoal in the Spratlys, near the western Philippine island of Palawan.

The Philippines did not lodge a diplomatic protest over the matter, saying the stranding of the vessel in its exclusive economic zone was likely an accident.

However the rival claims have long made the South China Sea one of Asia's potential military flashpoints, and tensions have escalated over the past year.

There were hopes that talks which ended on Friday amongst south-east Asian nations would lead to a framework for the future resolution of disputes in the area.

The Philippines and Vietnam have complained that China is becoming increasingly aggressive in its actions in the area.

The Philippines said the latest example of this was the failure of the talks on Friday which ended in failure because of the issue.

The Philippines had wanted its fellow Association of south-east Asian Nations to refer in a communique to a standoff last month with China over a rocky outcrop known as the Scarborough Shoal.

But Cambodia, the summit's host and China's ally, blocked the move.

Chinese fishing boats regularly travel to the Spratlys, a potentially oil-rich archipelago which China claims as part of its territory on historical grounds.

China says it has sovereign rights to all the South China Sea, believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits, including areas close to the coastlines of other countries and hundreds of kilometres (miles) from its own landmass.

But Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines also claim parts of the South China Sea.

The Spratlys are one of the biggest island chains in the area.

Tensions with Japan

There has also been tensions between Japan and China over territorial disputes in the area.

Last week lodged two separate complaints with Beijing after Chinese vessels entered resource-rich waters claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing near a group of islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

Japan recalled its ambassador to China for consultations on Sunday amid the row in the South China Sea.

Uichiro Niwa had returned to Tokyo for talks with Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba on the latest developments in the dispute, according to Japan's Jiji Press.

"I will report and have consultations" with Gemba, Niwa told reporters as he arrived at the foreign ministry in Tokyo.

Niwa said it had yet to be decided when he would return to Beijing.

Although Gemba has denied the government was recalling Niwa in protest against China, insisting that his return home was for consultations.